Hey, you guys are really positive. I didn't get that kind of response on my vituperate thread. Perhaps I can be the F'n family doctor on this one.

If the guitar neck is out of adjustment, you will have more difficulty with all types of barre chords. Test your neck by putting strings down in first and twelfth fret at the same time. Try it on the high and low E strings. If you can see light under the strings, the neck is out of adjustment. The guitar requires work and deserves some of the blame for the diffuculty that you are having with barre chords.

Positioning is another problem people have with barre chords. Anxiety over the chords can lead to funny, scrunched up fingering. A thumb over the top chord will be scrunched up but most barre chords should have the thumb and the fingers arched smoothly. Relax your wrist and elbow as well as your hand between beats and between chords. Move them around especially the elbow, in and out from your body, forwards and backwards) to try pressure on the strings from different angles for differnt chords. Milk the F chord and it's cousins out of the guitar with fluid arm movements rather than fighting it as a difficult and frightening chord.

P.S. I have no clue what YMMV means yet English is my first and second language (though my grandmother would break into bits of Scottish Gaelic, particularily when telling tales of Cape Breton relatives like Charlie Holy Malcolm MacDonald, Red Dan and Lizzie John Malcolm.)